Beauty Rewind: Brooke Shields in The Blue Lagoon

Way before Brooke Shields was fighting her way through a Lipstick Jungle, she was dealing with some very different environmental conditions in The Blue Lagoon. The 1980 romantic coming-of-age film tells the tale of Richard and Emmeline Lestrange (Shields and actor Christopher Atkins), who were marooned on a deserted island in the South Pacific after a shipwreck.

Years pass, the two innocent children enter their teenage years, and suddenly fishing and diving for pearls isn’t nearly as exciting as making out. Who could blame them? After all, how could they fight the onset of hormones when neither one was really ever wearing more than a loincloth? Shields, who was only 14 during filming, faced a firestorm of criticism for the provocative role, particularly after starring in Pretty Baby, a far more controversial film, two years prior. The controversy didn’t concern me—all I could think about when I saw The Blue Lagoon as a preteen was Shields blonde-streaked, salt-licked hair—long enough to cover her boobs of course.